


Old Timer

by Shanejayell



Category: Transformers Generation One
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2019-11-09
Packaged: 2021-01-26 08:35:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21371248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shanejayell/pseuds/Shanejayell
Summary: Who is the Old Timer on Planet Junk...?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters from Transformers, I'm only borrowing them for awhile. This story firs in with Generation One, Beast Wars and Beast Machines canon, more or less.

The Old Timer

No one visiting the planet of Junk knew how old the one called Old Timer actually was. His spark was bright and powerful, stronger than any Technorganic, Maximal or Predicon. He lived among the Junkions in a scrap rebuilt body but all who knew him realized he was different. He worked in the forges recycling scrap that fell to their world, and the evenings told stories.

With the vividness of having been there he told the rare visitors of the Great War, the struggles between heroic Autobots and treacherous Decepticons. He talked of the battles for Iacon, the fall of the Autobot Senate and the battles on the moons.

As the stories spread historians from Cybertron came, recording his tales and comparing them to surviving records. He became popular with a younger generation of transformer, too, eager to hear about a era so different than their own peaceful time. There was only one figure of the older era that he did not talk about, and that was Starscream.

'The Traitor' was how the Old Timer referred to him, when he spoke of him at all. It was a strange omission, when you considered his willingness to speak of both Autobots and Decepticons. He was fair and even handed to both sides, telling exciting tales of heroes on both sides. He seemed to hold only Starscream in contempt, but no one knew why.

The Old Timer was finishing up one story when the historian Alita Pax watched, her softly glowing eyes focused and intent. "Old Timer!" the feminine shaped golden Cybertronian called to him, "I have a request."

He looked at her calmly as he tilted his head to the side, "Yes?"

"Will you tell me about Starscream?" Alita asked. She saw his dark expression and quickly added, "For the archives."

Old Timer gave her a long, steady look of annoyance. "I am certain," he said with a oddly unemotional tone of voice, "there is plenty of data in the archives of his treachery."

Old Timer moved to break free of the crowd, but Alita hurried to put herself in his way. The slim Technorganic gulped as he loomed over her, but she held her ground. "Not from your perspective, sir," she said quietly. "Please?"

Old Timer looked down at her, his eyes glowing dangerously, then he seemed to slump. "The Traitor should be left to history, little one," was all he said as he stepped around her and clumped off into the twilight.

Alita watched him walk off, his gait slightly lopsided from his wreckage rebuilt body. "I nearly had him," she muttered to herself.

One of the Junkions looked at her thoughtfully, stroking his metal goatee. "You shouldn't push him like that, Cybertronian," he noted finally.

"You're.. Wreck-gar, yes?" Alita asked curiously.

"One of them," he nodded with a slight smile.

Alita decided she didn't want to push that as she instead asked, "Who is the Old Timer, sir? No one seems to know."

"I don't know either, Alita Pax," the Junkion told her. "He's been here as long as I have been functional, working beside the Junkions at the processing plant and keeping to himself." He shrugged, "If he doesn't want to say, we won't force him."

"But...," Alita sounded frustrated, "he's clearly a survivor of the Great War! The details in his stories all point to him being a eye-witness to those times. The insights he could give us..."

"He tells his stories to you," Wreck-gar noted mildly, "isn't that enough?"

Alita shook her head as she said, "But there's so much more he could do! There is so little solid data on that era..."

"So why chase him about Starscream?" Wreck-gar asked thoughtfully.

Alita met his eyes defiantly, "I think he's the lost Autobot Jetfire. He disappeared before the final years of the second Great War..."

"And he had cause to hate Starsceam," Wreck-gar acknowledged. He shrugged after a moment, "Push him if you wish, Alita. But I don't think it will do you much good."

Before she could ask him what he meant he transformed to cycle mode, racing off across the garbage strewn surface of Junk. Alita walked off and found someplace to sit apart from the workers and visitors as she took her data-slate, running through her recordings of the Old Timer's tales.

It was fascinating, listening to the recordings both she and other researchers had made. It was fascinating listening to first or at least second-hand accounts of the great battles of the Wars, of the return of Unicron, the rise and fall of Galvatron and others. She became enthralled in her research, studying the files until she realized the light was fading.

Alita got up, frowning as she realized she had little time to catch the shuttle off planet. Getting up she packed her devices away as she hurried along, for a moment wishing she had a faster transformed mode. Still, with the centuries of peace there hadn't been a need...

Passing by the structures that Junkions lived in she heard two figures talking, and unconsciously slowed to listen.

"... and does it even matter any more?" Wreck-gar was asking.

The Old Timer was sitting against the side of the hut, the larger figure studying Wreck-gar as he said, "It matters to me."

"She's already decided you're Jetfire," Wreck-gar noted with amusement.

"WHAT?" the Old Timer looked at him in shock. "He does not... I thought he was still alive?" he stammered, his expression pained.

"No one has seen him in a long time," Wreck-gar shrugged slightly.

Old Timer shook his head wryly. "Knowing him he finally decided to go exploring," he noted, his face taking on a fond expression, "he always wanted to explore deep space, beyond the limits of our existing knowledge."

"You knew him that well?' Wreck-gar asked.

"We were close, once," Old Timer agreed.

Alita felt a pang of disappointment. Clearly the Old Timer wasn't Jetfire. So who was he? And why was he hiding here?

"Here's JOHNNY!" Wreck-gar yelled as he suddenly appeared before her.

"EEEK!" Alita yelped, jumping.

"I see we're being watched," Old Timer frowned, the older transformer looking more resigned than anything else. Seeing Alita's rather shaken look he asked, "Are you all right?"

"Just startled," Alita managed to answer sheepishly.

"Sorry," Wreck-gar said to her apologetically, "we abandoned copying TV years ago, but old instincts die hard."

"Ah," Alita had no idea what he was talking about, so she just nodded.

"No one recognizes the classics," Wreck-gar shook his head with a sigh.

"The Shining," Old Timer offered, making Wreck-gar brighten up noticeably.

"All work and no play...," Wreck-gar chanted in a sing-song voice, grinning.

Old Timer gave him a amused look then looked at Alita. "The Junkions first pattered their speech patterns on Television programs they received from Earth," he explained, "they've mostly outgrown it, but occasionally revert."

"I see," Alita said, feeling a little foolish that she hadn't remembered, being a historian and all.

Wreck-gar excused himself, the mismatched transformer walking off and leaving the two alone. "So," the Old Timer said after a moment, "you want to hear of Starscream?"

"Yes," Alita answered eagerly, fumbling with her recording device.

Old Timer looked off into the distance as he sat down, trying to decide what to say. "Starscream was the commander of the Decepticon Air Forces, third in command of the Decepticon Armada, and was once the brightest star of the Decepticons," he told her.

Alita leaned forward intently, hearing something like regret in his voice.

"But Starscream was also too full of pride, and that led to his downfall," Old Timer said flatly. "He betrayed Megatron more than once, even nearly sending Megatron to his death. When Megatron returned as Galvatron, he was slain."

"I thought...," Alita sounded confused.

"Oh, he came back," Old Timer smiled grimly. "Starscream was blessed or cursed with a immortal Spark. Each time his body was destroyed he found himself continuing on, bodiless."

Alita shook her head, "Incredible."

"Yet Starscream squandered that great gift," Old Timer mused. "again and again he grabbed for power, betraying his allies and leaders. At times he even strode among the most powerful beings in the universe, yet each time his own treachery brought him down."

Alita nodded, fascinated.

The Old Timer looked at her, "He went on .like this for... a unknown amount of time. He fought beside Maximal and Predicon, under other identities. He saw the reformatting of Cybertron itself, and went out into the void to seek his fortune. And in the end he accomplished nothing."

"You really think so?" Alita asked quietly.

Old Timer laughed as he got up, "Starscream is now a word meaning unreasonably treacherous, or to BE unreasonably treacherous. He's become merely a joke."

Before Alita could ask any more the old transformer walked off, disappearing into the twilight on the planet of Junk.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Wreck-gar came across the Old Timer later that evening, finding the old transformer looking out into starry space from the edge of the Junk planetoid. "Don't jump," he told him, "it would take forever to rebuild you again."

Old Timer snorted in amusement, "I'm not that stupid. I don't like pain, even if I can't die."

Wreck-gar looked over at him thoughtfully a moment. "Do you ever miss being him?" he asked thoughtfully.

"Not really," Old Timer admitted after a moment. "Starscream was always in a hurry, and he cared nothing about anyone else."

"And you like telling stories," wreck-gar noted.

"Yes I do," Old Timer sounded surprised as he smiled. "Besides, I get to put in a few jabs at Megatron too."

"You're still not over that?" Wreck-gar laughed.

"Never," Starscream gave his old, sly smile, then laughed too.

End

Notes: This was originally gonna be a short piece with Old Timer telling the tale of Starscream, then revealing in his thoughts he was Starscream himself. But on thinking about it, I thought it deserved fleshing out a bit.

This is in line with TF generation one, Beast Wars and Beast Machines, more or less. My thought is that he fought in every major war on Cybertron, left the planet, lived thousands of years and finally just got sick of himself and retired to the planet of Junk.


	2. Optimus' Side

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters from Transformers, I'm just borrowing them for awhile. This story also assumes that canon from Beast Wars is canon for the original Transformers series.

Transformers: Echoes

Optimus Prime's Side

After the Autobots were awakened on the Arc, they were swept up in battles to protect the Earth so quickly that no one noticed the change in Prime at first. Gradually Autobots noticed he was more... capable, than he had been before. He lead with greater confidence, he was determined, and he almost shone with inner strength.

Kup and Ironhide once talked about it, when they were reunited. "Dunno what happened to him," Ironhide mused, "but I like it."

"Best leader of our generation," Kup agreed, the older Autobot nodding. He laughed, "Maybe the long sleep was good for him?"

Even if Optimus knew of the conversations, he couldn't really explain what had changed within him. At first he was completely unaware he HAD changed, and only later did he begin to get a sense of what happened. In his off hours he searched within his spark and the Matrix, and in the end found a answer of sorts.

Somehow, in the time Optimus had been shut down, another spark had touched his own, a spark from the future. Where it came from he didn't know, or how it happened, but somehow that spark and his were connected. And while he could not recall anything firm, he was left with strong impressions of what was to come.

Optimus didn't know how or when, but the Autobots would win the Cybertronian war. It might not be in his generation, it might not be until ages from now, but somehow he knew they would win. It filled him with a new confidence and determination to bring that brighter future about, whatever the cost.

"Autobots!" he cried, "Transform and roll out!"

To be continued...


	3. Megatron's Side

Megatron's Side

The Decepticons did not discuss the change in Megatron. They didn't dare. He had always been a dangerous, ruthless leader, but since their arrival on Earth he had become dangerously unpredictable. At times he would be incredibly bold, then others far too cautious, pulling back when there was only a hint the tide was turning. He embarked on schemes that almost seemed mad, far too grandiose for a Decepticon leader...

If anyone had been saying such things, Megatron would have killed them.

As Megatron strived to lead the Decepticons, something ate at him deep inside. He could not identify the source of discontent, could not identify what was wrong, but it ate at him like a cancer. He found himself fighting desperately against the Autobots, FEARING them in a way he could not explain even to himself.

Finally, searching within himself Megatron found the answer: someone had violated his spark. Some lesser being had actually touched his spark with their own, tainting him. Worse, Megatron got the sense that, somehow, this other spark was from the future. And with that, came a damning insight...

The Decepticons were going to lose.

It wouldn't be now. And he hoped it would not be in his generation, but he knew with a horrifying certainty that the Decepticons were going to be defeated. Someday they were going to fall, and worse there would be 'peace.' Once proud Decepticons would actually serve beside Autobots. Even work together with their natural enemies! The thought filled Megatron with horror. He would do anything to stop it.

Anything.

"Decepticons!" Megatron cried, "Attack!"

End

Notes: I always wondered if there were would be any long term effects from the Beast Wars characters sharing sparks with their Generation One counterparts. In this case I'm assuming both carried away a slight knowledge of the future, not enough to change things, but enough to influence them both.


End file.
